Olives, cherries and other small food items, such as pickles, are sometimes packaged in glass jars with reclosable screw on lids. Although this packaging modality provides a convenient reclosable package that allows the user to consume only a portion of the package contents at one time, a user must often find a utensil or resort to using his/her fingers to remove one or more of the food items from the food holding compartment of a partially filled jar. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a packaging system for packing olives and other small items that included a lifting basket positioned within the food holding chamber of the jar prior to introducing the food items and that includes a grasping rod that extended upward to the mouth of the jar so as to eliminate the need for retrieving a utensil, such as a spoon or fork, or the unsanitary practice of fishing the food item out with fingers each time a food item is to be removed.